So how everyone's been doing? How's your summer gone so far? Enjoyed your trips and vacations? The searing heat throughout the country?

Yet again, we try to blow out the cobwebs, open the windows and let some fresh air into this blog and website. Back in April, I was promoted to more of a lead editor role at The Comeback, overseeing our longer feature content. It's been fun and fulfilling, but I'm a lot busier on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, that's kind of affected my writing output (especially with baseball), and also left me too fried to remember posting even a weekly writing/reading update here at The Casselbloggy.

But now that we're beginning August and the summer is sort of winding down (a reality that was always depressing as a kid), I'm going to try yet again to keep this thing somewhat active — and hopefully with more than just weekly updates of what I wrote and read each week.

Really, I should start a newsletter, right? That's the thing to do these days. Although do you need one more newsletter in your email inbox? And really, something needs to update this site.

Thanks for checking in. And I hope I can include some writing here, especially with the presidential campaign having about three months to go. For now, here's what I wrote and enjoyed reading this week.

** I think I already knew this, but cargo shorts are frowned upon? This is a staple of my wardrobe for three-quarters of the year, living in North Carolina. "Socially acceptable sweatpants"! [Wall Street Journal]

** Kim Masters always does great work with her investigative features. No one is likely surprised by this piece on the Suicide Squad production, filled with corporate fear and interference. [The Hollywood Reporter]

** This is a really cool multimedia piece on Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and a technique in the freestyle that's been a key to his success. [New York Times]

** Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) may be the best character in Suicide Squad. So how was she created? Here's her DC Comics history. [Vulture]

** I was not a fan of Jason Bourne, but Devindra Hardawar highlights another problematic aspect of the movie: It gets tech totally wrong. [Engadget]

** This might be because I live around a lot of old people, but I hear a lot about knee, back and hip surgeries that didn't work. The back ones, especially, probably weren't necessary. [New York Times]